Eww, some nature got on me…

There are a lot of kids I know, or that Jack knows, that fall into one of these categories: a) afraid of bugs and critters, b) kill bugs and critters if at all possible, c) try to make all bugs and critters their friends and keep them as pets and inadvertently kill them, d) allergic to bugs and critters.

Luckily, LUCKILY, Jack is none of these! None! I think once when he was mad at me he pretended that he was going to squish an ant, and then felt so bad about it he cried his eyes out. My kind of man!

Between the two of us, we can’t get enough of being outside, taking hikes, studying little bugs and animals that we find in the woods, etc. Jack now says he wants to be a scientist and he’s always carrying around his magnifying glass and walkie-talkie. If I could only get him to say “over” when he’s done talking… SIGH! The other day, Jack went to our neighbor’s birthday party. She had a critter van pull up! Jack is still talking about the spiders and the one gecko that climbed his shirt. I wasn’t there, but I found out through photos that he even had a boa constrictor (python??) wrapped around his neck at one point. GASP!

Jack: The gecko’s name was Roxy. She was a jumper!

me: Did he climb your shirt? (Jack was wearing a shirt with the NYC skyline on it, so it looked like the gecko was climbing the building)

Jack: Uhhh, it was a SHEEEEE.

me: Sorry. Did SHE climb your shirt?

Jack: Didn’t you just see the picture? I think you know the answer.

me: Jack I’m just making conversation over here.

Jack: Less yacking and more packing.

me: (thanks for teaching him that, Dad) We’re not packing anything.

Jack: Well then just less yacking.

me: Sigh.

Not sure what kind of moth this is… but it was in our back yard.Little garden snake in Robinson State ParkJack with little turtleJack with a gecko climbing his shirt!GASP, giant snake on Jack’s neck.Another of the world’s tiniest toadsBlurry, but this little chipmunk lives in our drainpipe

How old is Jack? He sounds like a really incredible little guy. The snake looks like a python based on coloring, but I could be wrong. His love for animals will only continue to grow from here. When I was 4 or 5 years old my daycare took a field trip to a herpetarium. I wasn’t afraid, but skeptical. I have always like frogs and toads and turtles(Mom would let me keep them for a few days at a time and then release them back to their homes), but snakes and lizards were a whole new world to my little self. On this trip I got to hold the tail end of a giant yellow boa. From that day on, I’ve wanted one. Now, I still don’t have a yellow boa, let alone a giant one, but I do have other snakes and critters. I adopted my first snake as a sophomore in highschool and now, at age 20, adopt others when their owners can’t take them with when they move to a new home or some other similar situation. My younger sister has an iguana, my younger brother is saving for a leopard gecko(he’s 10), I have the snakes and a turtle, and then there’s the family dog. Be prepared for any and every kind of animal. Lol. Even the reptiles are a lot of fun. 🙂

Jack is 6 years old going on 35. 🙂 I think it’s about time to introduce some small critters into our house (in addition to the cats haha). I think Jack would love to take care of a lizard/gecko/iguana…I’ll have to look into the cost and upkeep. Some of these animals are expensive to own! Thanks for reading!

Great photos. What a great afternoon for an adventure! I am impressed as if that were climbing towards my face, I most likely would not have been as calm, cool, and collected as Jack was in the picture. : )

Children learn their fears from their parents! Therefore Jack doesn’t have too many. (that can be a bad thing also!) He even pets the big bumblebees when they land on flowers, as his friends run screaming away. 🙂

Does your cousin also talk to them in the high falsetto voice? Ha ha, I love that! Like: “It’s okay little buggy, I won’t hurt you!” I hear that a lot from Jack. Then his friends come over and squish the ants. Jack just about has an aneurysm!

I think it is just awesome that you and your son spend so much time outdoors and that he is being taught to enjoy and respect nature and other life. That is so refreshing! As someone that just graduated with a degree in wildlife biology I think educating children about their environment is sorely lacking but badly needed. Great job!

Ohhh, what an exciting degree! (jealous!) Art major here, who wishes she was a wildlife photographer. 🙂 Thanks for the comment. I will definitely continue to pass along to Jack my love and respect for all living things.

I completely agree with xdhaas — my fiance is a 6th grade teacher and at the end of year class picnic at the lake, I was appalled that two kids preferred to sit and play their handheld video games versus getting out and exploring like everyone else! (I was also appalled that it was allowed, but that’s another story.)

Jack has an advantage that far too many of his peers will or do not: he’s out in the world, learning about it and experiencing it first hand! Not only are you teaching him to respect his world, you’re also creating a bond that he will surely hold forever dear in his heart. Just wait till decades from now when you get to be out with him AND the grandkids, petting bumblebees and not squishing ants.

Wild life is always adventureful.See animal wonders depands on geographical environment. Everyone need life with natural environment when they work free.Blog picture is so beautiful.Thanks for greate post.

My kind of people! My friends often tease me about being Elmira off the Looney Tunes cartoon. I wanna hug him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him and…. You get the drift. I’ll take 32 pictures of the same bird doing the same thing, and I have skipped along the beach like a 5 year old when I saw a baby stingray once. I’m 33.

LOL! Love it! I too can be a bit…”tedious”… when I’m watching birds or even a chipmunk. Ha ha. I’ve also taught Jack the sounds of almost all of our backyard birds, so he can name them sight unseen. Yeah, maybe I go a bit overboard, but it’s so much fun! (I’m 33 at heart, ha ha)

Thanks for the nice words! The new buzzword in our house is “lame”. Everyone and everything is soooo lame according to Jack. It’s kind of funny but can get SO annoying after about the 30th time. Ah, gotta love the phases that kids go through.

That last picture really does look like that sweet little critter is about to meet mr. python, and not in a good way! I enjoyed reading your post & loved the pictures. Jack seems like a pretty cool guy.
Cheers!

Your son sounds like he has an amazing personality and sense of humor. We started taking our 17 month old hiking with us this year and he loves checking out the bugs and wildlife. His nightlight at home is the warming light for his turtle Steve. I can only hope my son enjoys the outdoors as much as Jack. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Finally Fast! Your comment went into spam. 😦 But I unspammed it! Thanks for the nice comment. I’m starting to really think we need to get Jack his own little pet. We have 2 cats, but they’re sort of “ours” and not “his”. How does your little guy like the turtle? Great name btw… We named our cat Ed. ha ha.

He loves the turtle. Every day he says hi to Steve when he wakes up and night night to Steve when he goes to bed. He can’t quite say Steve yet, he has it down to Steee. Turtles are such low maintenance too (especially if you have a good filter).

Seems like you have quite an adorable kid! Makes me hopeful. I definitely wanna have kids some day, but I’m scared they might grow up to be … well, people I don’t like! Like people that squish little bugs and hate their moms and so on :<

Believe me, I was right with you Ohhhh about 7 years ago. 🙂 But seriously, even with all the “sh*t” that goes along with parenting, this is the best thing I ever did with my life. By far! The good will always outweigh the bad, even though my blog might make you think otherwise. LOL!

That’s what I did, taught my kids about nature. We did the hikes, I went on all the outdoor class trips so I could teach them instead of some other kid telling my child that the frog will give him warts, and even as they are older, my 23 year old insisted on keeping some of the tadpoles that were in our pool cover (the rest were scooped out and found various homes along a creek that went past our neighborhood-kill tabpoles? Are you kidding me? NO WAY)

I was the one who carried around water snakes in my beach coat pockets. Gave caterpillars homes in class jars and was a half way house for injured birds. I hoped I carried that love of nature onto my kids.

Oh I totally agree with you! Some parents can really freak their kids out about animals and nature and bugs, etc. I, too, was always smuggling some poor creature into our house (cat, mouse, gerbil, hamster, snake, chinchilla, guinea pig, etc etc!!). I still “save” all bugs in my house. I’m the resident bug whisperer because I just can’t kill them. (unless it’s an infestation of some kind, then, well that’s a different story). I converted my husband into a bug saver for the most part, and now Jack too. I’m sure you definitely made a difference with your children. Even if it’s not apparent right now, your kids might teach THEIR kids what you taught them. 🙂

Thank you! I love the catch phrases and how they change as kids get older. It’s one of the reasons I started this blog…I simply couldn’t remember everything and I guess I’m a little OCD about that! We’ve gotten “no offense” also, and now (gasp) he speaks with “finger quotes” on certain words. Like: Hey, Mom, I’m not falling for your “little idea” that you’re trying to trick me into. (As he mock-quotes in the air with his fingers…Sigh) Though it is one of the funniest things you could ever see coming from a kid. 🙂

I remember loving reptiles as a kid, even as a girly girl at that. Garter snakes, toy snakes, and a friendly king snake were some of my best friends. Good thing there were no poisonous snakes where I grew up!

Someone else said python! My husband doesn’t remember what it was, but it looks like it could have choked Jack in a second. My sister has a python of some sort also…that’s a bit too much reptile for me!

Jack is just adorable! I too love nature a lot. Had a chipmunk that kept sitting on my shoulder (it was a little orphan when I found it) and a crow that wouldn’t leave me, amongst many other animals. I look forward to knowing jack more (:

That’s awesome to have animals adopt you! 🙂 My son gets this from me and my Dad, who has a constant bevy of trained squirrels knocking on our windows for peanuts (he hand feeds them) and blue jays that bring their family members to his yard to meet him! Thank you for the comment!

Your post really caught my attention! I remember a birthday party I threw for my son when he was 5 with Jungle Larry and all his animals. I have a similar pic of my son with a lizard on his chest and one holding a snake! Wow what memories you brought back to me. He’s 19 yrs old now…cherish those moments with your son, they go by soo fast!

Oh, you got caught in the WP spam filter also. It’s so sensitive! Anyway, I’m glad I could bring back some nice memories. Do you just freak out that you’re the mom of a 19-year-old?? Most of my friends have college-aged kids, and here I am with a 6-year-old. They had a good laugh over it, let me tell you! The years do go by too fast. 😦 Thanks for visiting!

My dad said I was the son he always wanted. LOL I am the spider catcher at my school, I raised several baby squire’s after they became orphans in our yard. I am the snake catcher as well. When my boys were small we collected all kinds of animals. Even helped a snake give birth once to a bunch of babies (that’s a long story) And my two cats found me and now are the queens of the castle. Love this post, thanks for bringing back some fond memories of when my boys were this age.

Thanks for that nice comment! Funny, but I think I had that same role in my family…as the oldest child AND a girl. I also know all the 70’s wrestlers by heart, but THAT’s a long story. 🙂 Have you blogged about the snake birth? If so, send me the link. If not, then get to it!

my 3rd child, son, is newly 7. Since I homeschool my kids, we are outside a lot. My kids are still nervous about some bugs (courtesy of their 15 yo brother)…but with some gentle coaching they don’t run screaming from them anymore, and we’ve watched the bees collecting pollen from our flowers, and talked about how good it is for all of us.

They’ve taken to turning over rocks and sticks and really exploring this world they are a part of.

Laughing at the falsetto voice bug-chatter. Yes! Nice to see another mom with a natural outlook!

Wonderful blog. Congratulations on being FP. My little ones are grown and in their 30’s now, but they tell me often what a great childhood they had. Teaching childern to be in touch with nature lasts a lifetime. After all, you train them to head out into the big world all alone someday. Jack will never forget the lessons he learns from critters. Blessings to you and your family.

Oh my…I just can’t believe how your son didn’t get scared by that gecko climbing on his shirt! I always thought gecko and other creatures like that scare the hell out of most people,and if they don’t scare them,they disgust them. And that snake!!! Your son is really brave.

I think he would make a perfect talent for a national geographic TV programme

i think you broke down the categories well. My boys are in a nature killing phase, I am sorry to say.
My only “eeks” are spiders — because I am allergic and get huge welts — and moths (!) because they tend to fly into my face for some reason, and I hate that.
Reptiles I have always enjoyed, though!

Hi,
Really enjoyed reading this blog! The photos go great with it too.
The only criticism I have is, could you edit the spelling error? In the second paragraph instead of squish AND ant, it should be squish AN ant.
Sorry, my inner editor gets the best of me.
Keep up the great stuff.

GASP, a … TYPOOOOO??? You have no idea how picky I am and what with the giant swelled head I have from all this attention, it got right by me! Hold on, going to fix typo now! Thanks! No one else pointed it out. Kind of like having something in your teeth!

We need a lot more scientists so I hope he sticks with it. My nephew has had a real interest in science since he was really young and at 15 he still has it. Great to encourage such inquisitive thought!

He reminds me of Victoria and Joey! They both love animals too! We just spent 1 hour saving snails today at Lion Country Safari. It rained and the sidewalks were covered with them! They couldn’t stand to have anyone step on them!

I know that feeling. I would do the same thing! haha. Jack and I took a walk once after it rained and there were like thousands of earth worms in the road. We saved as many as we could, and then we looked up and they went as far as we could see down the road. Jack sighed and said “Can we just save the feisty ones?”

I am so happy that you have such a wonderful understanding realtionship with your baby boy! What a happy wonderful life you are in store for!!! Beautiful post!!! :o) I am goign to read more….You and Jack are lovely souls!!! Great energy to mingle with! :0) AmberLena

Jack is my kind of guy! I remember being his age and getting to hold “Beauty”, the Boa Constrictor at the nature museum near my home. It made a positive impression on my life. Great you’re teaching Jack to respect all living things and not just the human kind! Thanks for your blog.